The Newsletter of the Dialogue: Oral History Section Volume 6, Issue 1 Winter 2010 Society of American Archivists

FROM THE CHAIR Mark Cave, The Historic Collection Our section meeting in Austin anniversary. She is planning for on-site interviews to was a great success. 100 people take place at the annual conference in Washington. enjoyed the live interview conducted by Jim Fogerty Thank you to those of you who replied to our query with David Gracy. Jim did a to the section membership in October. We received wonderful job in conducting the really helpful information related to the interests and interview, and it was such a great needs of the section membership. This information way to honor Mr. Gracy for his will be helpful in the creation of an online survey, contributions to our profession. which will be a part of our website, and continually Our next section meeting promises to be equally gather information about the section’s membership. engaging. It is being planned by Vice Chair/Chair Past Chair Al Stein along with Nominating Committee Elect Joel Minor and will be devoted to oral history members Doug Boyd and Trojanowski will be and human rights. looking for candidates for Vice Chair and two Steering Committee members for our next election, and will Lauren Kata has been busy since the Austin meeting also be reviewing our current bylaws. developing our SAA 75th Anniversary Oral History Project. Lauren has been named as the section’s A special thanks to Jennifer Eidson for preparing this representative on the 75th Anniversary Task Force, issue of Dialogue and for maintaining the section’s which is coordinating all the events surrounding the website. IN THIS ISSUE

ORAL HISTORY SPOTLIGHT: SAA’s 75th Anniversary Update on the Oral History Project...... 2 A Note from the Chair on the 75th Anniversary Oral History Project...... 3 CONFERENCES Report on the Oral History Section Meeting and Session #309: Oral History in Action...... 4 Summary of the 2009 Oral History Association (OHA) Conference...... 5 Report on the Oral History Association of Australia (OHAA) Conference...... 6 ORAL HISTORY NEWS StoryCorps at the Library of Congress...... 7 StoryCorps at Nashville Public Library...... 7 National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) online oral history project— Pittsburgh and Beyond: The Experience of the Jewish Community...... 8 Oral History of the U.S. House of Representatives...... 8 Loyal Lesley Daughters: An Oral History of Massachusetts Women Teachers, 1925-1965...... 10 Film Review: Soul of a People...... 11 Update on Oral History and Digital Technology Online Resource...... 12 ORAL HISTORY CALENDAR...... 12 SAA ORAL HISTORY SECTION ANNOUNCEMENTS Online Election Information...... 13 SAA ORAL HISTORY SECTION INFORMATION Purpose of the Oral History Section...... 14 2009-2010 Steering Committee Members...... 14 SPOTLIGHT: SAA’s 75th Anniversary Update on the Oral History Project project. Our plan is to continue with student outreach Submitted By Lauren Kata, and I hope to see students interviewing both mentors Project Coordinator for the SAA and fellow students. 75th Anniversary Oral History Project In addition to student participation, we’ve also At our August meeting in Austin a few months begun the recruiting process for member-to-member ago, the Section announced its plans to initiate interviews, which you will definitely be reading more an oral history project in celebration of SAA’s 75th about in the coming months. Several members, in Anniversary in 2011. Our inaugural interview was and out of the Section, have agreed to help and conducted live during our Section meeting - many participate in the project. Many thanks to all of you of you were in the audience when former Section who have helped us so far! chair Jim Fogerty interviewed David Gracy on camera about his career and longtime membership Finally – at the end of 2009, the SAA 75th Anniversary and leadership in SAA. In addition, inaugural Task Force (TF) was established. SAA Council “mentor” audio interviews were conducted with approved the establishment of the TF, whose purpose George Bain and Pam Hackbart-Dean. In Austin, the is to be “responsible for coordinating a multi- Steering Committee discussed initial planning for faceted approach to planning and implementing interviewing in 2010 and 2011, and I was happy to a celebration of the Society’s 75th anniversary in officially accept the role of coordinator for this special 2011.” This approach will involve various groups project through 2011. In this role, I will work with the and individuals, including SAA’s Council, officers, Steering Committee, Section members and others committees, sections, roundtables, and staff. Our in SAA to make our anniversary oral history project a Chair Mark Cave requested that I be included as the sustainable success. Section’s liaison to the TF, and indeed I accepted SAA President Helen Tibbo’s invitation to participate. Since our August meeting, I have a few things to I’m happy to share that the TF is an active group of report. First, in October I was delighted to have people showing much enthusiasm for a successful been invited by the SAA-UT Student Chapter as a anniversary celebration, that will include a vibrant guest speaker to discuss the Oral History Section and interactive oral history component. Our own and our vision for a 75th Anniversary project. Texas section member and interviewee David Gracy is Chair graduate students expressed a lot of interest and of this TF, with Lee Stout serving as co-chair. enthusiasm for oral history in general, and the project SAA’s 75th Anniversary Task Force will be vigorously specifically. During the meeting, we had some very working all this year and next to plan and implement interesting conversations when we broke into groups activities and programs that loosely fall within the and reviewed past transcripts of SAA leadership following four categories: serious history, advocacy/ interviews. SAA-UT faculty advisor David Gracy also outreach, fundraising, and fun. A lot of ideas for offered some of his thoughts and observations on projects and activities have been discussed to date. broad vs. narrow topics and how to put interviewees As I thought more about the different opportunities at ease. It was refreshing to learn that many students and projects, I considered how an SAA oral history already have experience in conducting interviews, project fits into all of these areas. Here are some of my and several students offered to help with the project. thoughts: In fact, SAA-UT student Karen Ballinger worked over her winter break to transcribe the Fogerty-Gracy SERIOUS HISTORY interview, which is now in its editing stages and Interviews, particularly those conducted with SAA which we hope will be ready to be excerpted for leaders document knowledge about and experience the next issue of Dialogue. I really appreciated the in the history of SAA and the archival profession. opportunity to interact with the UT students and Interviews create a body of institutional knowledge believe that archives students are not just important that may be used not just in reflection of SAA but potential users of SAA interviews, but also should be also in practice – a continuation of organizational considered critical potential participants in the 75th memory.

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Interviews may be utilized for future scholarship on interviewing during regional meetings. the history of archives. FUNDRAISING Interviews will be officially archived within the Oral Oral History Projects, especially those designed History Series of the SAA Archives at UW-Milwaukee, with multiple uses in mind, typically are a popular building the base of that collection. fund selection for both annual fund and major gifts contributions. This may be an appropriate project for The project is designed for institutionalization; in corporate sponsorship and/or grants as well. other words, the OH Section is to working Fundraising can and should be tied to both users and with SAA Staff and leadership to turn this from a participants of the project. “project” to a regular operational program of the Society – similar to records management of SAA FUN records. Although oral history is traditionally and appropriately labeled as a “serious history” activity, this project is ADVOCACY/OUTREACH/MARKETING designed on multiple levels and is meant to inspire Clips or interesting/catchy moments from interviews fun for those who choose to participate. conducted as part of this project may be used for marketing, outreach, and/or advocacy of the 75th StoryCorps as a model - several people have celebrations and beyond – to try to hook folks who mentioned the idea of contracting with StoryCorps as may become excited about attending SAA 2010 and/ an anniversary activity. Whether we budget existing or 2011 and onsite opportunities to conduct member funds to bring StoryCorps to our meeting or draw to member interviews along the lines of StoryCorps. from interviewing and technology experts within Interviews (video footage and/or transcriptions) may our memberships, onsite “booths” that provide be used for future publications (print and non-print member-to-member interviewing opportunities not alike) - either as they are produced or a few years only inspire fun, but also inspire meaningful bonding down the line, they can be used to create an edited moments. anthology. Some final thoughts: we (the Section) would really The Oral History Project provides an opportunity to like to plan and promote the 75th Anniversary Oral market and advocate SAA to its own members – a History Project as a member-driven project, one way to reinforce member buy-in to strengthen the that draws on the skills, interest and expertise of organization. The way that the project is designed Oral History Section members, and really any SAA and imagined allows for every group to have an member who is interested in participating. And so my opportunity to work with the Oral History Section to report for this issue ends with a solicitation - please, identify members within their sections/roundtables/ consider joining our team as a volunteer interviewer, working group that should be interviewed, with interviewee, transcriber, or even as an on-site the promise that those interviews will be centrally interview coordinator. This is a chance beyond serving preserved with the SAA Archives. A sustainable on the Steering Committee to become involved in training program could also be built into the project, a Section project. Please contact me asap if you are and we hope to create opportunities both onsite and interested and would like to help!! year-round to encourage members to interview other members. A Note from the Chair on the

The Oral History Section, through its organizational 75th Anniversary Oral History Project Submitted by Mark Cave, structure and through this project, regularly liaisons Historic New Orleans Collection with the Oral History Association as well as other regional organizations. This is an opportunity The first SAA annual conference I attended was in to strengthen partnerships through interviews Philadelphia many, many years ago. I knew only a conducted with joint members, and by scheduling couple people: Bill Marshall, my Archives instructor at

continued on next page 3 Dialogue January 2010 75th Anniversary SPOTLIGHT (continued) the University of Kentucky, and George Bain who was to an end. I immediately asked if he would be willing one of my supervisors when I was a student worker to be interviewed and he agreed. at Ohio University. The second day of the conference, George invited me to have breakfast with him. We The formality of an interview with George was odd at had oatmeal at what I think was a Shoney’s. For some first, but that wore off. He talked about his first SAA reason this breakfast has stuck in my memory, and in conference, the people that were influential to him, a weird way it has always marked for me, the begin- his work in various sections, etc. It was only when ning of my career as an archivist. I have attended I participated in this formal interview process that many of the SAA conferences since that time, and the significance of my memory of having oatmeal at always look forward to visiting with George, Bill, and Shoney’s with George in Philadelphia really sank in. the many friends that I have made since that first It must have been on some level the moment that I conference. became connected to what had gone on before me. At that moment, I became a part of our profession. At this past SAA meeting in Austin, Lauren Kata and Providing these interpersonal and generational links is I decided that the best way to test the water of the fundamental to what SAA is, and it is what we hope to section’s oral history initiative related to SAA’s 75th celebrate in our 75th anniversary Oral History project. anniversary would be for us to interview some of our mentors. We had devoted our section program to a I encourage all section members to participate in live interview with David Gracey conducted by Jim some way in this important project. Please contact Fogerty, but had not planned much beyond that. To Lauren Kata if you wish to conduct an interview or my surprise I ran into George in the hotel lobby. He help out in other ways. had retired, and I thought our run of visits had come CONFERENCES

Report on the Oral History Section project at AAMC and how it’s capturing their institu- Meeting and Session #309: tional history. Oral History in Action Mr. Mages gave a presentation on the Army’s oral Submitted by Jen Eidson, Veterans History Project history program, its successes, and its challenges. and Lauren Kata, Archives of the Episcopal Church There are six organizations in the Army which collect the oral histories as one of these four interview types: The last SAA annual meeting was in Austin, TX, home biographical, subject, exit, or after-action. One reality of the bats and a flourishing live music scene. In the project faces is that after-action interviews taken Austin, the Oral History Section hosted an interview from members of the same unit do not always corre- with David Gracy to kick off the 75th Anniversary Oral late to each other. Mages stated that it was up to the History Project. It was quite a draw for conference historians o vet out the differences, but that it’s really attendees, with standing room only. The audience a good example of how oral history is subjective in seemed impressed with the good natured honesty nature. All of their interviews are recorded on audio with which he recounted his experiences as an archi- cassette, but since they do not have the resources to vist. store or preserve the audio cassettes, they emphasize the creation and storage of transcripts. Their priority The Section-sponsored session, “Oral History in is to keep the transcript, not the audio cassettes. Col- Action: Sustaining Organizational Knowledge and lected oral histories are used in various Army publi- Institutional Memory” was also a packed session, with cations and a portion of the transcripts are available close to 100 attendees. Robert Mages from the US online (http://www.ahco.army.mil/site/index.jsp and Army Heritage and Education Center talked about http://cgsc.leavenworth.army.mil/carl/contentdm/ Oral History in the US Army. The next speaker was home.htm). Molly Alexander from the Association of American Medical Colleges. She spoke about the oral history continued on next page 4 Dialogue January 2010 CONFERENCES (continued) Ms. Alexander talked about the challenges of the oral The conference thread devoted to Oral History as history program at the Association of American Medi- Activism and Social Justice had great relevance to our cal Colleges (AAMC). She shared how her oral history section meeting program in Washington DC which project at AAMC caught the eye of human resources will be devoted to Oral History and Human Rights. administrators, who recognized that over 94 years The thread at OHA included excellent presentations of institutional memory was walking out the door as by Daniel Kerr of James Madison University “Is Oral retired leadership moved on from the organization. History Exploitative? Oral History with the Homeless,” The AAMC has recognized the value of oral history in and Terry Easton of Gainesville State College “Col- orienting new senior staff. Both presenters touched laborative Work: Day Laborers, Activists, and Media on the use of oral history as a vehicle for knowledge Specialists.” transfer. One of the members of our steering committee, Doug Audience members had many questions, ranging Boyd, served on the conference Program Commit- from staffing questions to software to the advantages tee and organized an outstanding selection of pre- and disadvantages of providing questions to inter- conference workshops which included a workshop viewees in advance. With regard to the US Army pro- by Touchable Stories director, Shannon Flattery and gram, members questioned whether and how Post a workshop on Digital Applications in Oral History Traumatic Stress Disorder might affect After Action Research, Teaching, and Production. Interviews, and how the army deals with that. There were also questions about whether institutional inter- On Wednesday evening, at the beautiful Louisville views are voluntary or mandatory for both programs, Public Media Center, a welcome reception and Ple- and how release forms are handled. nary Panel Discussion was held to spotlight Stud Ter- kel’s “contributions to the oral history movement and Audio recordings for SAA sessions are available for to literary and media creations based on his library of purchase on the SAA website; http://www.archivists. voices.” Section member Al Stein was instrumental org/conference/. in the organization of this event which was presided over by OHA Vice President/President Elect Michael Frisch. The Panelists included who was the creator and long-time host of NPR’s Morning Edi- Summary of the 2009 Oral History tion; Terkel’s friend and collaborator Sydney Lewis; Association (OHA) Conference activist, educator, and historian Timuel Black Jr.; Social Submitted by Mark Cave, Justice curriculum expert Rick Ayers; and Terkel’s son Historic New Orleans Collection Dan Terkel.

The annual meeting of Oral History Association was The Friday afternoon Plenary, entitled “How the World held in Louisville, Kentucky, October 14-18, 2009. The Works: Explorations in Labor and Globalization,” fea- overarching theme of the conference was “Moving Be- tured a lecture by British Sociologist Caroline Knowles, yond the interview.” The program committee selected who is currently the Director of the Centre for Urban presentations with certain subjects or “conference and Community Research at Goldsmiths, University threads” in mind. They included: Oral History as Art of London. Her lecture drew from her own travel, and and Advocacy; Oral History as Teaching and Service she argued “that the world in which we live is created Learning; Oral History as Film and Image; Oral History in the journeys people make around it. Travel is no and Folk life in Community; Oral History as Activ- trivial pursuit. Understanding how people travel is the ism and Social Justice; and Oral History in Museums, key to understanding how the world works.” Archives, and Digital Environments. The committee smartly identified the sessions in the program with The revised General Principals for Oral History and Best an icon designating the “conference thread,” which Practices for Oral History were approved at the Louis- enabled conference goers to more easily follow a ville meeting. The purpose of these documents are to thematic path. provide summaries of the discipline’s most important principals and guidelines, and is not intended to be continued on next page 5 Dialogue January 2010 CONFERENCES (continued)

a substitute for professional literature. The intent of Terkel’s laments was that young Americans have no the revision was to streamline the document to make memory of (and are seldom taught about) the strug- it more useable for IRB’s and people from a variety of gles it took, and still takes, to make their homeland discipline’s that frequently reference the documents. more fair and inclusive. That observation may well The revised guidelines are available for review on the apply to Australia. The Chicago History Museum is the OHA website. repository for the thousands of hours of recordings made by Studs as well as all of his writings. Al said it is often referred to as ‘The Studsonian Institution’. Oral History Association of Australia Across the rest of the conference there was a broad (OHAA) Conference Report range of topics which covered oral history undertak- Submitted by Alison McDougall and Karen George (Reprinted with permission from Word of Mouth, Newsletter of the ings in every state and territory of Australia as well OHAA (SA) Inc, Spring 2009) as one from Manitoba, Canada. There were three sessions which shared people’s use of oral history The 16th National Oral History Association of Australia and stories in indigenous communities; the short- Conference was held in Launceston, Tasmania 17– comings of the Victorian Heritage Act which requires 20 September, close to the Queen Victoria Museum Aboriginal people to register otherwise they have no and Art Gallery’s Inveresk site. Some 130 delegates voice, and which makes no reference to oral tradi- were treated to three and a half days of stimulating tion; Queenslanders reflecting on Prime Minister presentations. After a moving Welcome to Country Rudd’s Apology to Australia’s Indigenous people (see by Aboriginal Elder, Nola Hooper, the conference was http://www.slq.qld.gov.au/coll/aptsi/apology); how officially opened by His Excellency The Honourable Aboriginal Tasmanians are participating in Telling Ewan Crawford, Lieutenant-Governor of Tasmania, Places in Country – a research project that re-traces who himself had been an interviewee for an oral the ‘Friendly Mission’ undertaken by George Augustus history conducted for a book on the history of the Robinson in the early 1830s, which saw Aboriginal Launceston Church Grammar School. people rounded up for exile – and how it is helping

The Keynote Address, given by Richard Whiteing, was entitled Remembering Mandela on Robben Island. Richard is the Research Manager of the Robben Island Museum and during the apartheid era he spent fifteen years in exile in Botswana, during which time he joined the African National Congress and oper- ated clandestinely in its political structures for eleven years until he was able to return to South Africa in 1991. Richard generously donated a copy of his recent publication, a tribute to Nelson Mandela on his 90th birthday, entitled Political Prisoner 466/64: Nelson Mandela on Robben Island, to each OHAA state branch.

Alan Harris Stein, archival oral historian and Associate Director of the Consortium for Oral History Educa- tors at the University of Maryland, gave a fascinating Richard Whiteing (left) and Al Stein (right) present check to St. insight into the life and times of Studs Terkel, the Giles Foundation. Conference organizer Jill Cassidy of the OHAA iconic American oral historian who practised his craft Tasmanian Branch is at extreme left, and next to her is a member of the St. Giles Management Team. St Giles Foundation was found- through radio, performing arts and activism until his ed in 1937 by the Chamber Of Commerce, Rotary, and the City of death in 2008 at 96 years of age. Al accompanied his Launceston, Tasmania, to provide aftercare support to children talk with a documentary he co-produced, entitled affected by polio. [Photo courtesy of Jill Cassidy, OHAA] Rocking the Boat: Studs Terkel’s 20th Century. One of

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them reclaim their history and identity. refugees and migrants. Delegates were treated to a wonderful performance of excerpts from Stella Kent’s Other major topics were: oral history on the Web, play New Tasmanians which was based on the oral oral history and place, art and oral history, war and histories of migrants to that state. oral history, and oral histories of work places and of

ORAL HISTORY NEWS

StoryCorps at the Library of Congress presented with dignity”), the Memory Loss initiative Submitted by Marcia Segal (created “to support and encourage people with Processing Archivist, memory loss to share their stories”), and most recently American Folklife Center, Library of Congress Historias (“to honor these culturally significant voices, and to ensure these voices are represented on public The StoryCorps Project began in 2003 as a way radio”). While the majority of StoryCorps interviews to encourage dialogs between family, friends, are in English, some interviews are part or entirely schoolmates, and neighbors, to name a few conducted in Korean, Spanish, Hmong, Italian, Swahili, interviewer-storyteller pairings. According to David and other languages. As interest has grown in the Isay, the project’s founder, StoryCorps helps to show project, so the project has grown to fit the needs and that “the stories of everyday people are as interesting interests of its audience and participants. Selections and as important as the nonsense that we’re fed from the interviews are highlighted each Friday, on about [celebrities] that comes through our television National Public Radio member stations, and the book sets 24 hours a day.” and CD from the project have been best-sellers. While originally envisioned as a 10-year project, StoryCorps To date, the American Folklife Center has received is now open-ended and growing, and may only slow almost 24,000 interviews, as well as almost 60,000 down if people lose interest in hearing stories from photos (taken at the time of the interviews). An even the heart. greater number of interviews actually have been made, which will arrive at the American Folklife StoryCorps at Nashville Public Library Center (if participants have granted permission to Submitted by James Havron, archive the interviews), and once the StoryCorps Special Collections Division staff has processed them. Due to the sheer size of the collection, the interviews and related materials Last year Nashville Public Library (NPL) became are not online and can only be heard in the Folklife the first city other than New York to both host a Center’s reading room. Researchers should contact stationary StoryCorps booth and to receive an the American Folklife Center’s reference staff in archive of the interviews for onsite retention and advance of any visit with questions (the best means of access (as opposed to having to go to you folks at contact is via email, at [email protected]). Any requests the Library of Congress.) We have been working for copies of materials still must be directed to the to make that archive fully available and have now StoryCorps staff (inquiries can be made athttp:// finalized a finding aid and the making of use copies. www..org/about/inquiries). The entire collection is available to patrons at the Special Collections Division, along with our other oral By 2010, StoryCorps interviews have been recorded histories. all over the United States (in large part due to the recording booths that go on road trips, called We have four ongoing oral history projects, currently MobileBooths). In addition, StoryCorps has conducted recorded in digital format, and several older collaborative, theme-based initiatives, including collections from projects completed and donated to the Griot initiative (“the voices, experiences, and the NPL in the past. We are also just completing the life stories of African Americans ... preserved and final stage of a grant funded project to convert our

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older, analog oral history collections into digital Pittsburgh project participants include Lincoln and format. All these projects were completed (with the Minnie Maazel, former Pittsburgh Mayor Sophie exception of the on-going ones, of course) under the Masloff, former Carnegie Museum of Art Director, tenures of the Special Collections Division Managers, Leon Arkus, and internationally renowned Rabbi Aimee James and Andrea Blackman, and funded Walter Jacob. primarily by generous donations arranged by the Nashville Public Library Foundation. In order to prepare the collection for online dissemination, the University Library System worked with George Blood of Safe Sound Archive to digitize National Council of Jewish Women the content originally recorded on standard audio (NCJW) online oral history project— cassettes. Final products created from the digitization Pittsburgh and Beyond: The Experience included preservation files (.wav), use files (.mp3), of the Jewish Community and playlists (.xspf). ID3 tags enabled each cassette Submitted by Miriam Meislik side to be associated with its digitized content and Media Curator, Archives Service Center, rights information. A team comprised of members of University of Pittsburgh the Archives Service Center, Digital Research Library, Information Systems, and Web Services worked together on the project. Staff at the archives were The University of Pittsburgh Library System (ULS) responsible for preparing the metadata for each and the Pittsburgh section of the National Council interview using data extracted by the Digital Research of Jewish Women (NCJW) have recently launched Library from the NCJW’s original printed guide, Pittsburgh and Beyond: The Experience of the Jewish Pittsburgh and Beyond. The project relied heavily on Community. The site, containing over 500 audio MS Excel spreadsheets to organize the nearly 2500 interviews of the Pittsburgh area Jewish community, lines of information. can be found at http://digital.library.pitt.edu/n/ncjw. Visitors to the website can search for the name of an In 1968, the Pittsburgh chapter of the NCJW interviewee or retrieve an abstract of the interview by embarked on what would eventually become a using keywords. The collection can also be browsed 32-year long project to document the life and by personal name, geographic region, or subject. experiences of the Pittsburgh area Jewish community. Copies of any interviews are available for Using trained volunteers, they interviewed purchase on CD. community members who came to America from Eastern Europe between 1890 and 1924. Oral History of the In 1973, the NCJW, after realizing that there were U.S. House of Representatives many more stories to be told, launched a second Submitted by Heather Bourk phase of the project to document the contributions Assistant Archivist, Office of History and Preservation that Pittsburgh’s Jewish men and women made Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives locally, nationally, and internationally. Overall 516 individuals were interviewed between 1968 and Beginning in the summer of 2004, the Office of the 2001, producing over 1,200 hours of material on 1,100 Clerk authorized the first oral history program for the standard audiocassettes. U.S. House of Representatives. Created to make the

rich heritage of the U.S. House of Representatives This very popular collection of interviews is housed more accessible to Members, staff, scholars, and at the Archives Service Center and has been used the general public, the program seeks to include by researchers in a variety of projects and requested interviews with a wide variety of House employees by relatives looking for family histories. The such as Member aides, committee staff, support staff, interviews contain invaluable first-person accounts and technical assistants. Interviews are conducted by of immigration, of World War II and the Holocaust, of the Office of History and Preservation (OHP). life in Pittsburgh, and many other topics. Prominent

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or pictures—will be stored and protected according to archival standards.

Assigned to the Democratic Cloakroom, Bill Goodwin (second from left) answered the telephones and ran errands for Members. The main room of the House Press Gallery in 1951; Benjamin C. Image courtesy of William Goodwin, provided by Office of History West is standing on the left near the bulletin board. In 1967, the and Preservation, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives press gallery underwent a major renovation.

Image courtesy of Benjamin C. West, provided by Office of History The collection and preservation of the stories and and Preservation, Office of the Clerk, experiences of people who have worked on Capitol U.S. House of Representatives Hill greatly contributes to the historical record of the U.S. House of Representatives. Detailed descriptions Project Highlights: of legislative processes and procedures, personal and political anecdotes, and recollections about the • Interviewed a diverse group of people connected evolving nature of the institution, represent an to the history of the House (House Officers; untapped but vital source of information about the committee staff; Member staff; support staff; inner workings of Congress. Recording the detailed family of former Members; press gallery reflections of people who have worked in various employees; Pages; floor staff; and Capitol Police capacities at the Capitol allows current congressional Officers) staff the opportunity to familiarize themselves with • More than 20 people have been interviewed past House practices, which in turn may inform those • More than 100 recorded hours of interviews making decisions and planning policies in the • All interviews featured on the project Web site present. By providing such a resource, OHP also seeks include complete transcripts (PDF and HTML), to promote further interest in and study of the history interviewee biographies, photographs and/ of the U.S. House of Representatives and American or artifacts, and audio interview clips (http:// government. oralhistory.clerk.house.gov) • Searchable Web site Oral history interviews are recorded using audio • Many of the interviews featured on the Web site and/or video equipment. OHP produces transcripts, include video interview clips interview summaries, and electronic copies of • Educational resources for teachers which include the recordings. Audio and video recordings will a lesson plan and activity as well as teaching tips be archived and made available publicly through (http://oralhistory.clerk.house.gov/additional- the Center for Legislative Archives at the National resources.html) Archives and Records Administration (NARA), and the • Web site includes links to historical highlights Library of Congress. Original recordings—as well as featuring oral history interviewees (http:// any supporting documentary materials such as letters oralhistory.clerk.house.gov/highlight.html) continued on next page 9 Dialogue January 2010 ORAL HISTORY NEWS (continued)

• The Web site will be updated periodically attributes of the perfect Lesley student – loyalty, (additional interview transcripts; new honesty, motherhood, friendship – and neglects the interviewees; and more educational materials) School’s core mission: to foster intellectual growth and educate women to become early childhood educators. White’s lyrics reflect the difficult choice that the all-female student body had to make between career and family. For many of these women, their careers as educators were short lived; once a teacher got married, she would lose her job. Lesley alumnae had to choose between having a career or being a good wife and mother. For the first fifty years of its existence, Lesley was deeply entrenched in competing educational philosophies that surrounded women’s place in American social and economic life.

The oral histories to be featured in Loyal Lesley Daughters uncover a lost history, one that is not The Boggs family walks along the East Front plaza along the House side of the Capitol in this 1950 image. From left to right, Cokie currently told in the documents that Lesley owns. (Roberts), Hale, Tommy, Lindy, and Barbara. For many of the women, the interviews provide a platform to talk about their experiences and express Image courtesy of , provided by Office of History and their opinions, often for the first time. The interview Preservation, Office of the Clerk, U.S. House of Representatives process, with its open-ended questions and stream of consciousness approach, allows a range of emotion Loyal Lesley Daughters: An Oral History – from humor to frustration and from hope to fear. of Massachusetts Women Teachers, An alternative narrative about women teachers 1925-1965 in Massachusetts emerges: one that shows the contradiction of a society that allowed women to be Submitted by Alyssa Pacy trained as early childhood educators but didn’t let University Archivist, Lesley University, them teach. Cambridge, Massachusetts

The Lesley University Archives in Cambridge, Massachusetts recently received funding from Mass Humanities, the state-based affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities, to present the exhibition, Loyal Lesley Daughters: An Oral History of Massachusetts’ Women Teachers, 1925-1965, as part of the University’s 2009-2010 centennial celebration. Loyal Lesley Daughters, opening in May 2010, will exhibit oral history interviews of Lesley’s alumnae, detailing their experiences at an all women’s Selma Chervin Bell, here in 1948 and 2009, graduated from Les- institution, the teaching techniques they learned, and ley University in 1948 and later was a teacher in the Lexington the challenges they faced as women building careers Public Schools for over 20 years. in Massachusetts Public Schools. The exhibit will highlight 12 narrators who are The title, Loyal Lesley Daughters, refers to Lesley’s representative of the over 40 interviews conducted school song, written in 1944 by former president to date. Gallery visitors will be able to listen to audio Trentwell Mason White. The song praises the excerpts of each interview, 30 seconds to 30 minutes

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in length, on an iPod shuffle. Mounted on the gallery American history: the Federal Writers’ Project. walls will be a short biography of each narrator and a historical explanation of the interview excerpt. In the grip of the Great Depression, unemployed A framed, black and white photograph of each men and women joined an unlikely WPA program to narrator will be displayed along with any relevant document America in guidebooks and interviews. photographic or historical materials that the narrator With the Federal Writers’ Project, the government has donated (for example, a photograph of the pitted young, untested talents against the problems narrator teaching, a lesson plan used by the narrator, of everyday Americans. From that experience, some or the narrator’s senior photograph from Lesley). of America’s great writers found their own voices, and discovered the Soul of a People. Archival oral history Playing in a continuous loop on a monitor at the and film is perfected as we see and hear the witnesses gallery entrance, a 6-8 minute video will introduce (Studs Terkel and Stetson Kennedy among them) the exhibit and place the women’s stories in historical and biographical sketches of John Cheever, Richard context. The video, using still images, voiceover, and Wright, Zora Neale Hurston, Vardis Fisher, and Jim music, will outline the cultural, economic, and political Thompson: writers all. The film is masterfully crafted climates that the women faced each decade. History with archival footage that comes to life thanks to both about the roaring twenties and the Great Depression HD and carefully crafted movement and graphics will be interwoven with the women’s personal over stills and documentary footage. I believe this stories of intellectual discovery and professional technique using a rostrum camera is totally perfected freedom. World War II and the American post-war so that the period is at once alive, contemporary and consciousness will be highlighted next to the stories relevant to the witnesses’ memories and stories of women facing the burden of recreating American (especially the “American Stuff” excerpt of Jim family life and its affect on their teaching careers. Thompson as well as the folklore sequence). A diverse Finally, the budding American feminist movement group of leading authors, poets, and historians will be explored in the context of Lesley students and including Douglas Brinkley and David Bradley, provide alumnae challenging the status quo. witty and heartbreaking insights into the rise and fall of the Project. The exhibition will run from May 26, 2010 to July 1, 2010 at the Marran Gallery at Lesley University Taylor’s companion book to the documentary is in Cambridge, Massachusetts. entitled: Soul of A People: The WPA Writers’ Project Uncovers Depression America. It was published on the 75th anniversary of the New Deal. Andrea Kalin, Film Review: Soul of a People the founder and president of Spark Media, is an Submitted by Al Stein, Chicago State University award-winning filmmaker whose work has earned more than 50 industry awards in the past decade. Soul of a People: Writing America’s Story, was the Employing superior storytelling gifts to promote subject of a series of organized exhibits, lectures, and social change, her films depict lives of panels at over 30 libraries throughout the United courage, perseverance and dignity set against brutal States in 2009, sponsored by the American Library injustices and seemingly insurmountable hardships. Association and supported by a grant from the Her multimedia firm, officially launched NEH. Last fall saw the completion of the acclaimed in 1989, truly is a “spark,” as it utilizes visual narratives feature-length documentary produced and directed to increase awareness among cultures and gives by Andrea Kalin and written by David A. Taylor, audience members a chance to become more Olive Emma Bucklin and Kalin for the Smithsonian engaged in the world in which they live. Networks, funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities. Nominated for the prestigious Writers Winners and nominees will be honored at the Guild of America Award (during the 2009 season in upcoming 2010 Writers Guild Awards on February 20, the category “best documentary other than current 2010, in Los Angeles and New York. events”) and narrated by award-winning actor, Patricia We wish Kalin, Taylor and Associate Producer Oliver Clarkson, Soul of a People is the story of the most Lukas all the best! chaotic and influential cultural experiment in continued on next page 11 Dialogue January 2010 ORAL HISTORY NEWS (continued) Update on Oral History and Digital to other related resources online. Currently, the site Technology Online Resource contains detailed information and tutorials on the basics of digital audio, audio recording with proper Submitted by Doug Boyd, input levels, an ongoing series of brief video tutorials Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History, on many of the most common digital field recorders, University of Kentucky Libraries as well as providing a downloadable glossary of Digital technologies associated with oral history are terms and concepts pertaining to digital audio. rapidly changing and the transition for many oral The site is being managed and edited by Doug historians and archivists can be frustrating. The Oral Boyd, Director of the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History Association’s website is hosting a relatively History at the University of Kentucky Libraries. Over new resource, “Oral History and Digital Technologies,” the next few months the site will expand to include [http://www.oralhistory.org/technology/] which more information regarding analog and digital provides practical information on technologies preservation, video-recording, as well as a featured associated with the practice and preservation of oral section focusing on microphones. This is an exciting history interviews. This growing resource includes new initiative by the Oral History Association. detailed information and user friendly tutorials Suggestions for specific topics and resources on some of these rapidly changing recording and featured on the site should be sent to Doug Boyd preservation technologies as well as providing links ([email protected]). ORAL HISTORY CALENDAR April June Oral History of the Mid-Atlantic Region (OHMAR) Panel and Workshop to accompany exhibit: Spring Conference, 2010 Loyal Lesley Daughters: An Oral History of April 28th & 29th, 2010 Massachusetts Women Teachers, 1925-1965 June 4th & 19th, 2010 “Catching Lightning in a Bottle: Documenting Science, Technology & Innovation Through Oral History” A panel discussion with the participants will take Submission deadline extended to Feb. 19, 2010 place on June 4, 2010 and an oral history workshop will take place on June 19, 2010. Both events are free Charles Sumner School Museum and Archives an open to the public. For more information, please 1201 17th Street, NW, Washington, DC contact Alyssa Pacy, Lesley University Archivist, at Contact: [email protected] [email protected] or visit www.masshumanities.org. Website: http://www.ohmar.org/confercurrent.html

______July July 2-3, 2010 SAA Workshop Oral History in Art, Craft, and Design: Oral History Oral History: From Planning to Preservation #0136 Society annual conference in association with the April 30th, 2010 Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Oral History Association Calendar Newport News Public Library System ______Newport News, VA Early-Bird Registration Deadline: March 30, 2010 July 7-11, 2010 SAA Continuing Education Calendar International Oral History Association and the Czech Oral History Association invite you to participate in The XVI International Oral History Conference, “Between Past and Future: Oral History, Memory and Meaning” that will be held in Prague, Czech Republic. Oral History Association Calendar 12 Dialogue January 2010 ORAL HISTORY SECTION ANNOUNCEMENTS

Online Section Election Information 4. Supplementary ballot information (e.g., candidate From Brian Doyle, SAA’s Director of Member & photos, biographies, and statements), if desired, Technical Services. shall be posted by the Section leaders to the Section website six (6) weeks prior to the Annual Please take note of the following changes to section Membership Meeting. (For the coming year: voting and the dates for nominations and voting this June 29, 2010.) year. There will be further annoucements via the Oral History Section listserv. 5. Online ballots containing basic ballot information shall be prepared by staff and made accessible 1. Sections shall conduct annual elections via an during the first week of July and shall remain online ballot system provided by the SAA staff. open for at least two weeks. (For the coming year: Members must vote via the online ballot. July 6-20, 2010.)

2. Formal calls for nominations shall be issued by the 6. Section members who are in good standing on Section leadership and collected ten (10) weeks June 30 shall be eligible to vote. Members who prior to the Annual Membership Meeting. (For the join after this date shall be eligible to vote during coming year: June 1, 2010.) the following year.

3. Basic ballot information (e.g., introductory 7. Ballot results shall be reported by staff to the message to voters, listing of offices, number of Section leaders in order to be announced at the vacancies for each, names of candidates, and links Annual Meeting. to candidate statements) shall be submitted to the SAA staff eight (8) weeks prior to the Annual Membership Meeting. (For the coming year: June 15, 2010.)

13 Dialogue January 2010 www.archivists.org/saagroups/oralhist/index.asp

Purpose of the SAA Oral History Section

The Oral History Section of the Society of American Archivists is composed of members of the Society and others who are interested in or are actively engaged in conducting oral history interviews and/or teach oral history methodology. The Oral History Section provides a forum for news, for discussion of issues and developments, and for establishing and maintaining commu- nication and cooperation with other professional organizations.

Read the rest of the Section’s By-laws

Steering Committee Members 2009-2010 Member (term 2009-2011) Beth Ann Koelsch University of North Carolina-Greensboro Section Chair [email protected] Mark Cave The Historic New Orleans Collection Member (term 2009-2011) [email protected] Marlene Justsen The National Press Club Vice-Chair/Chair-Elect [email protected] Joel Minor Texas State University-San Marcos Newsletter Editor/Ex-officio Member [email protected] Jennifer Eidson Library of Congress Veterans History Project Past Section Chair & [email protected] Nominating Committee Chair Al Stein Project Leader for 75th Anniversary Chicago State University Oral History Project [email protected] (term 2009-2010) Lauren Kata Member (term 2008-2010) Archives of the Episcopal Church Douglas A. Boyd Austin, TX University of Kentucky [email protected] [email protected] New leadership assumes office at the close of the Member (term 2008-2010) annual meeting of the section. Hermann Trojanowski University of North Carolina at Greensboro [email protected] Cassette image on cover by Andrew Coulter Enright. Used with permission.

14 Dialogue January 2010